The Pillars of Adventism.

I was doing a study to write a outline of the foundational pillars of Adventism. Everyone seems to have a personal view of what they entail but limited support for it. What SOP or writings in church periodicals has everyone on this important issue as I have the following pillars.....

The investigative judgmentThe sanctuary serviceThe perpetuity of the Law of GodThe faith of JesusThe Three Angels' MessagesThe seventh-day SabbathThe state of the deadThe special gift of prophecy (or the Testimony of Jesus).

"The Father is all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and is invisible to mortal sight. The Son is all the fulness of the Godhead manifested. The Word of God declares Him to be "the express image of His person." "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Here is shown the personality of the Father.

The Comforter that Christ promised to send after He ascended to heaven, is the Spirit in all the fulness of the Godhead, making manifest the power of divine grace to all who receive and believe in Christ as a personal Saviour. There are three living persons of the heavenly trio; in the name of these three great powers--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit-- those who receive Christ by living faith are baptized, and these powers will co-operate with the obedient subjects of heaven in their efforts to live the new life in Christ."

The entire testimony should be read as well as the source for what she was quoting and altering. The original quote used the word Trinity and she deliberately took that out.

Within the quote she calls the three persons of the trio "powers."

She says that the Father is a body, likewise the Son, who is in His express image? How? Because He was begotten from the Father.

She makes a point of saying that both the Father and Son are bodies, but she does not do that for the Holy Spirit.

She brings out that the Father only is God, distinguishing Him from the Son and the Spirit; yet, the Son is all the fullness of the Godhead (divinity) and the Spirit is in all the fullness of the Godhead (divinity). Thus, the Son and the Spirit are not the personality of God; they are rather of the Godhead.

we will explain later in another post why some of the pioneers had issue with the term trinity and the various meaning attached to it, but now read more of her quotes.

We need to realize thatthe Holy Spirit, who is as much a person as God is a person, is walkingthrough these grounds.—Manuscript 66, 1899(Fromatalk tothestudents attheAvondale School.).{Ev 616.5}

The Holy Spirit is a person, for He beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. When this witness is borne, it carries with it its own evidence. At such times we believe and are sure that we are the children of God....{Ev 616.6}

The Holy Spirit has a personality, else He could not bear witness to our spirits and with our spirits that we are the children of God. He must also be a divine person, else He could not search out the secrets which lie hidden in the mind of God. “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”—Manuscript 20, 1906.{Ev 617.1}

The prince of the power of evil can only be held in check by the power of God in the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.—Special Testimonies, Series A, 10:37. (1897).{Ev 617.2}

We are to co-operate with the three highest powers in heaven,—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,—and these powers will work through us, making us workers together with God.—Special Testimonies, Series B, 7:51. (1905).{Ev 617.3}

The Holy Spirit is the power of God which is activated in the human world; it is not another God person, it is God Himself working through His own power.

Ephesians 1:19…and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. He displayed this power in the working of His mighty strength, 20 which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.…

Romans 8:11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

God the Father raised Christ from the dead by evoking the power of His own Spirit; the Holy Spirit.

if the Spirit of him (God the Father) who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he (God the Father) who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

Who raised Jesus from the dead?

Ephesians 1:18 I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. He displayed this power in the working of His mighty strength, 20which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms,…

Acts 2:24

But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for Him to be held in its clutches.

Romans 6:4

We therefore were buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.

Gene, we are trying to remain focus: i believe Malachi considers himself an Adventist, maybe a historical Adventist.

Jesus, speaking of His body said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19) Certainly, it was “God” who raised His body (Rom. 10:9, 1 Pet. 1:21), and Jesus is God. But Scripture also teaches that the Father raised Him (Gal. 1:1; Eph. 1:17, 20). Even the Holy Spirit is said to have raised Him (Romans 8:11). So, the act of raising Jesus from the dead was not the operation merely of one person within the Trinity but was a cooperative act done by the power of the divine substance.

No, she uses it to denote a part of a whole. If I said that this reply was one of three would you then deny that it was part, or one of, the three answers I am giving? By the same token I could say that there are three answers in the reply that I am giving, this being one of them. This is a spurious argument. Can you show me anywhere in the Spirit of Prophecy where Ellen White uses the phrase "in the Godhead"? You are asking her to use a phrase that she never uses and trying to reinterpret her words to have a meaning she never intended and that none of her readers understood. "Of" and "in" are synonymous in this usage.

The entire testimony should be read as well as the source for what she was quoting and altering.

The context is very clear, she is describing the Godhead as three living persons and names them as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Hence, "There are three living persons of the heavenly trio; in the name of these three great powers--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit"

The original quote used the word Trinity and she deliberately took that out.

Evidence, please.

Within the quote she calls the three persons of the trio "powers."

What does the word "trio" mean here, if not three or trinity? Secondly, are you suggesting that God is a "power" as opposed to being a "person"?

She says that the Father is a body, likewise the Son, who is in His express image? How? Because He was begotten from the Father.

No, she says that "the Father is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" and the Son is "the fullness of the Godhead manifested". She does not say Christ has a body because He was begotten of the Father, He has a body because He was born of a woman.

She makes a point of saying that both the Father and Son are bodies, but she does not do that for the Holy Spirit.

You are now setting your own definition of what it means to be a person. She refers to the Holy Spirit as "the third person of the Godhead" (Desire of Ages p.671) . Why would you expect the Holy Spirit to have a body - He is a Spirit? You appear to be suggesting that to be a person means that you must have a body and this is close to the old error held by the early Adventists.

She brings out that the Father only is God, distinguishing Him from the Son and the Spirit; yet, the Son is all the fullness of the Godhead (divinity) and the Spirit is in all the fullness of the Godhead (divinity). Thus, the Son and the Spirit are not the personality of God; they are rather of the Godhead.

Nowhere does Ellen White state that "the Father only is God". In 1897, E. G. White had written in relation to Christ’s divinity that, “The Word, who was with God, and who was God, had this life. Physical life is something which each individual receives. It is not eternal or immortal; for God, the lifegiver, takes it again. Man has no control over his life. But the life of Christ was unborrowed. No one can take this life from him. “I lay it down of myself,” he said. In him was life, original, unborrowed, underived.” White made a distinction from the life than man possesses, received from God with no control on when it is given, how long it is held or when it is taken back. Christ’s life is His own, received from no-one and under His control. If Christ’s life did not originate then it meant that he was self-existent, that He is God. In these simple words Ellen White presented Christ in the fullness of the Godhead.

It seems to me as if you are trying to use semantics to force a false teaching, close to the semi-Arianism of many of the Pioneers, onto Spirit of Prophecy without taking the plain reading of her words. The idea that there is one God and two demi-gods is not found in SDAism and is refuted by EGWs statements that there is a Godhead comprised of three persons.